What is “the Father?”
The Father is universal Consciousness;
the Substance of all form; divine Mind
acting as your mind and manifesting as
limitless ideas; immortal Life appearing
as the harmonious individual life.

Seek everything in life from the kingdom within.
Draw your good from the infinity of your own
being. Touch that center, the kingdom within,
and let the Father reveal your heritage.This is to live by Grace.

The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation.
When everything is lost, and all seems darkness,
then comes the new life and all that is needed.Joseph Campbell

God, who is everywhere, never leaves us. Yet He seems
sometimes to be present, sometimes absent. If we
do not know Him well, we do not realize that He
may be more present to us when he is absent
than when He is present.Thomas Merton

The Abyss was the place of transformation for
the mystics. In its depths shone the
illumination of the ‘divine dark,’ where
divinity revealed itself. …[One] of the
great mystics, St. John of the Cross, speaks
of the ‘secret stair’ by which one descends
in the dark night to meet the Beloved—the way
the soul journeys into union with God. But
prior to that union of ecstatic rapture with
the Beloved comes the Dark Night of the Soul,
that painful period of privation when one
feels imprisoned in The Abyss.Linda Schierse Leonard

Only those willing to walk through the dark night
will be able to see the beauty of the moon
and the brilliance of the stars.Archbishop Socrates Vilegas

NATURE designed a forest as an experiment in unpredictability.
We are trying to design a regulated forest. Nature designed
a forest of long-term trends. We are trying to design a
forest with short-term absolutes. Nature designed a forest
with diversity. We are designing a forest with simplistic
uniformity. Nature designed a forest of interrelated
processes. We are trying to design a forest based on
isolated products. Nature designed a forest in which all
elements are neutral. We are designing a forest in which
we perceive some elements to be good, others bad. Nature
designed a forest to be a flexible, timeless continuum of
species. We are designing a forest to be a rigid, time-
constrained monoculture. Nature designed a forest over
a landscape. We are trying to design a forest on each acre.
Nature designed a forest to be self-sustaining and self-
repairing. We are designing a forest to require increasing
external subsidies—fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.

Nature designed forests of the Pacific Northwest
to live 500 to 1,200 years. We are designing a forest that
may seldom live 100 years. Nature designed forests of the
Pacific Northwest to be unique in the world, with twenty-five
species of conifers, the longest lived and the largest of their
genera anywhere. We are designing a forest based largely
on a single-species, short rotation.

Our dream—a sustainable forest—must be bold
enough to allow change not only in the forest but also
in our thinking because the land is not to be conquered but
is to be nurtured. We must also understand, accept, and
remember that the world is always in a state of becoming,
in a state of change, so nothing is ever ‘finished.’ Thus,
if we try to hold things constant, like yesterday’s timber
values projected into tomorrow’s forests, then it is like
driving through life looking in the rearview mirror.
Today’s decisions will design and sustain or destroy
the forests of tomorrow.

Now, more than ever, we must recognize that we are part
of the human family and trust and respect each other as if
human dignity truly were the philosophical cornerstone of
society. We must also recognize and accept that we have
one ecosystem that simultaneously produces a multitude of
products. And we, as individuals and generations, as
societies and nations, are both inseparable products of
and tenants of that system, custodians for those who follow.Chris Maser, words from the classic book, The Redesigned Forest

When you are in a spiritual place, you really feel
you are in the light. You close your eyes and
meditate on spiritual sun-light; you wander in
your meditation in gardens of indescribable beauty;
then you come back to what you call reality. But
it is the vision you enjoyed when meditating that
was real; for that is your true life, the life of
spirit. What you come back to is illusion. Do you
realize that your physical world is illusory? That
in reality, it is built of light and that your
physical body is composed of light?White Eagle, Further Steps on a Spiritual Path

Within your consciousness are the Words
direct from Divine Source that reawaken and
unite you to your true Self—the one who lives
in this world but who is not of it. Only in the
quiet and stillness of transparency do you
receive the infinity of your OWN words.
Herein is the mystical Union.

A spiritual adventure to embrace!

We must let imagery and poetry have their way with us,
and not try to confine ourselves to the literal meaning
of words. Let us be free from the limitations of
made-up words and made-up prayers and accept the
poetry and the imagery of the Soul, accept our
freedom in God—not lose it by trying to analyze
and dissect every word.Joel S. Goldsmith, beloved teacher and author on the Path of Consciousness

There’s no cosmic pearls
to quest for around the globe.
They reside within.

This is the period in history when the Father’s grace
is being revealed on earth as it is in heaven.
This is the period which is the foundation for
all spiritual ages to come. This is the period
in which the nature of spiritual power is being
revealed to the world. This is the most thrilling
period of spiritual discovery ever recorded in
history. Those who are part of this revelation
of the spiritual age are blessed beyond
measure and degree.Joel S. Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, page 192

There is a One-ness with all being and with nature,
and one is of the very substance and nature of all creation.
This is not being a part of nature or even a part of God but
rather being the very fabric of Life. One feels their self
of the essence of the sea, the actual rise and fall of
the waves, the ebb and flow of the tides.Joel S. Goldsmith, masterful teacher and author

Concentrate on matter and you see everything
in terms of matter. But as soon as you lift up your
consciousness to the state of divine awareness, you see
the oceanic current of God’s light flowing behind all
matter. You see everything in terms of Spirit.Paramahansa Yogananda, Master of Life